Europe, meanwhile, was grappling with its own geopolitical crisis. According to an investigation by the Washington Post, Hungary’s chief diplomat Peter Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov allegedly exchanged private documents — a revelation that sent shockwaves through Brussels.
The European Commission expressed “great concern” over the suspected intelligence leaks. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán dismissed the allegations as a “serious attack,” but the scandal deepened when Italy’s Matteo Salvini flew to Budapest to support Orbán ahead of elections. In Germany, alarm is also growing over potential parallel disclosures involving the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The episode lays bare the fractures within the EU over its eastern members’ relationships with Moscow, even as the war in Ukraine drags on.